This was one of the samplings from a gift pack for american beers. Glad that it was a gift.

Appearance - nice brown color, low carbonation & head is gone before you know it. It has a clear appearance & looks good enough to bring you in for a taste.

Smell - This is more malts then hops. Sweet smelling, chocolaty and roasty.

Taste - The flavor is sweet, but not overly sweet. Definitely needs more buttering, but not horrible. The sweetness from the brown sugar & the malts comes throughout and that is well balanced, but the lack of the bitter at the end of the sip makes the beer seem to fall flat .

Mouthfeel - The beer has a watery yet smooth body. It does feel flat due to lack of carbonation and wateriness, but would be constant with the feel of this era brewing (1799 AD).

Drinkability - The beer is a easy drink from start to finish. Would I search this beer out, no, but depending on choices or if I was gifted this pack again I know that I would drink this first. (979 characters)

Clear russet with amber highlights, pretty light colored for a porter. Creamy light tan head that quickly fades to a skim and leaves little lace behind on the glass. Light toasted grain and brown sugar are detected in the mild nose. Brown sugar, bubblegum and a touch of toasted malt. This beer is way undermalted for the style, it's more Oktoberfest than porter. Light, watery and fizzy. This beer is just not very good. (421 characters)

Poured from a bottle into a pint glass. Pours a very dark ruby red almost brown with a one finger tan foamy head. This porter has a pretty decent head retention and good lacing. I pick up some malt and a slight sweet smell. It has a very similar smell to many of the other Minhas beers. None of the flavors in this beer are overwhelming. It has very good balance. Has some roasted flavors and just a little hop flavor. It has a pretty smooth medium bodied mouthfeel. For the most part, I like this beer. I would have it again. (526 characters)

Pours a clear copper color with about one finger of light tan head. This is a porter? Very light color for a porter. Only keeps a thin lace and not much more.

Smells of sweet, buttery caramel and toffee. No roasted aroma to speak of, nor any hops. It's not offensive, although it's not very appealing either.

Taste is even less appealing. It's sweet and not much else, with buttery caramel and a touch of honey. Nose smelled more like toffee but I don't get that here. Also a touch of grain and a metallic quality. Bleh.

Mouthfeel is medium bodied and the sweetness is a bit cloying, a bit sticky. Carbonation is advanced enough to keep it from being too much of a trainwreck.

I often think that porter is a style that's hard to screw up. It's dark enough that you can hide flaws relatively easily, and doesn't demand a ton of flavor or complexity. This, however, is a lousy one. In keeping with my thoughts about the other beers from this box, I'm glad that beer in America has progressed to where we are now. (1,077 characters)

poured from a very interesting bottle with a parchment style label with a weird looking bird announcing that 'freedom is brewing'.

tis light red with amber at the bottom, this doesn't look too much like a porter. a tiny little head came up with some aggressive pouring but faded out quickly.

smell of light roasts and dirty water. and that's pretty much it.

tastes of slightly roasted nuts, taste is followed by the dirty water/metal/diacetyl taste that seems to be the theme in the beers of america pack. overall this is a dull beer. the slight roasted notes are the only thing similar to a porter i can detect, but it's ruined by its other qualities.

mouthfeel slick and watery, not much carbonation. not satisfying at all. drinkability okay i guess. it's not completely horrible, it's bearable. but it's nowhere near a porter. reminds me of a coca-cola, really.

i would use the words 'watery' 'roasty' and 'indistinguished' for this beer. (966 characters)

One of the beers from the Beers of America Historical Beer Collection.

A: Pours a somewhat clear tannish color leaning towards light orange-red. Not much head except for a thin, white ring.

S: Generally fresh with hints of roasted sweet malts.

T: Strong sweet malt flavor with some diacetyl, citrusy hops and a faint roasted character. This would serve as a nice, heavier American Wheat ale, but this is definitely not a Porter in the conventional sense of the style.

M: Somewhat thin with medium carbonation.

D: It was drinkable enough, but nothing about this beer said Porter to me. (593 characters)

Presentation: This is one of six beers from an eighteen pack labeled Beer of America, Historical Collection. The 18 pack also came with a nice book titled, The History of Beer in America. It was poured from a brown 12oz bottle into a pint glass. There appears to be no freshness date on the bottle.

Appearance: The body has a medium brownish/red color with a very clear appearance and visible carbonation. This seems very odd to me for the style. On top is a thin white head that quickly fades out to just a wispy thin ring of bubbles that makes no lacing at all.

Smell: Its aroma has hints of lightly roasted sweet malt and metallic/salty minerals with a touch of leafy hops.

Taste/Palate: There is a big buttery grain flavor with some lighter hints of roasted malt. The malt up front has modest sweetness is lightly balanced by some mineral/leafy hop flavor and mild bitterness. Into the finish there are some citrus orange peel and salty metallic notes. The body is light to medium with a slick fizzy texture.

Notes: There is nothing about this beer that reminds me of porter. The color seems to light, the flavor is to light and boring. There is no head retention at all and it has that same salty/metallic/diacetyl taste I found in all the others beers in this mixed pack. The best part of this 18 pack is the book that came with it. (1,342 characters)

Bottle poured into a pint glass produced a finger worth of tan that than disappears to almost no lace. The body of the brew was the typical black for a porter.

Aromas' of roasted malts and a light coffee smell filled my nose. The flavor is rather subdued too a little watery not to much in the way of roasted malt flavor. The mouthfeel is rather light for a porter as well, good carbonation though.

It is drinkable it goes down really fast not what I expect in a porter as well. Really not to impressed with this brewery. Oh well live and learn (546 characters)

A solid heavy brown color with a modest dusty tan head that erodes quickly into a ring and very little sign of lacing. The aroma is licorice charcoal and molasses raisin. Interesting. The taste brings more charcoal molasses and caramel malt. Not a bad flavor although the feel is a bit too aqueous. It does offer a refreshingly fine carbonation and is very drinkable. There's a vague touch of prune-like alcohol but it's obviously not high in alcohol. Near the end I even detect a slight dark chocolate effect. Overall, for a thin, drinkable porter this was pretty good. Suitable for most any occasion! My bottle actually specifies the brewery name as "MD II" which may account for my higher than average rating here somehow. I should also note that this has been in my fridge for well over a year, maybe aging did the trick? (825 characters)

Part of a mixed 18 pack in a nice metal tin that may be able to be used as a patio beer & ice holder later this summer. I'll have to see how bad it leaks ro rusts.

Appearance: Poured from the 12 oz bottle into a pint glass. The beer is very dark brown to black. My pour produces a nice brownish head about 1 inch in thickness. Head fades to a solid ring and partial cover with some lacing.

Taste: In line with the scent, roasted malts, no hops (not bitter). Not big on taste, I'd call it Porter Light.

Mouthfeel: A bit thin, and watery, light to medium bodied. Sufficiently carbonated, making it a bit more lively on the tongue.

Drinkability: A decent beer, not an overly complex or robust representation of the style. Maybe that's good as many people will try the mix pack, give this a shot and say "That's not too bad" and try some other (better) porter. (945 characters)

12 oz received as a cool extra from jjanega08.. thanks Jozef.. poured into my Chimay goblet..

1" head from an aggressive pour.. no lace and the head dies within :15 seconds ... pretty lack luster cap. the brew is dark brown..

the nose is more fruity than anything else. lite... plums... some dried cherries.. and a pronounced "cola".. actually very little traditional porter aromas.... lite chocolate .. and even lighter dark malts.. brown sugar emerges as it warms.. but no other real porter qualities emerge.

flavor is a big let down.. I was hoping for more.. pretty much lite coffee with some out front fruity esters.. more interesting (slightly) as it warms to room temperature.. very light body and a fizzy carbonation... not great .. and barely good.. okay if I was grading friend's homebrew, but even then, my friends brew better than this.

This makes me think that there is nobody behind the wheels at this brewery.. more likely just a mechanical pump that pushes mediocre brews through dark grains (I know this does not actually happen).. but still.. a fizzy dark brew that is sorta burning in my tummy.. pretty terrible.. even for me.. and I don't traditionally like middle of the road porters.

Thanks Jozef.. but no thanks.. an average brew at best that needs to be whittled down to the basics and reworked.... really... people buy this??!! (1,358 characters)

Tight leaning aroma with some dark roast/coffee character, but really hard to pick up.Dark brown to black with garnet highlights. Minimal head that ends up leaving a persistent tan thin layer.Flavor is mild for a porter, but especially at the start hold tasty coffee/roast flavor. Mild bitterness and short finish with a tad of dryness. Body approaches reaching about right, but a bit on the thin side and a bit aqueous. Carbonation is about right.Because is a tad thin, lacks some body and is under rich, it drinks okay. Lack of intensity of flavors also help some, except that also lowers appeal and desire to drink more. This is more the makings of a decent porter, but otherwise not quite there. (703 characters)

A= very dark brown. Small head and small spotty lacingS= big chocolate and small coffee smell. Could this be the best from the brewery???T= chocolate coffee and dirty waterM= low carb and watery D= this is a bluff! This isn't a porter at all. Its the best the brewery offers from what I've had but its a bluff! (314 characters)

Bottle pours a dark mahogany body with a large tan head that leaves some nice lacing. Aroma is chocolate and roast coffee. Body is light medium and on the thin side. Medium carbonation. Taste is chocolate malt and dark roasty bitterness. This is a decent American porter and the best of what was apparently the Minhas Brewery's sampler pack. (341 characters)

Poured a very dark brown, with some red showing through at the edges. The thick off-white head dropped rapidly. A faint, but typical porter aroma of roasted malt with a hint of smoke. The flavor was roasted malt and dark chocolate with a thin but highly carbonated mouthfeel.

This bottle had what had to be the smallest text I've ever seen on a beer bottle, and it was in a script font as well, making it all but impossible to read. (433 characters)